Department of Social Economy 
for THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 


MONOGRAPHS 

ON 

AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 

EDITOR 

HERBERT B. ADAMS 

Professor of American History in Johns Hopkins University 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

RICHARD WATERMAN jr 


VIII 


inspection of mines 


BY 

WILLIAM FRANKLIN WILLOUGHBY 

Expert in the Departinent of Labor, Washington, D. C. 


This Monograph is contributed to the United States Social Economy Exhibit 

by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 





Department of Social Economy 


FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 

Director 

HOWARD J. ROGERS, Albany, N. Y. 

MONOGRAPHS 

ON 

AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


EDITOR 

HERBERT B. ADAMS 

Professor of American History in Johns Hopkins University 
ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

RICHARD WATERMAN Jr 


I THE SOCIAL ECONOMY EXHIBIT AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 
1900 — Richard Waterman Jr, of the Department of Education and Social 
Economy for the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 

II THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE— Edward D. Jones, Instructor in 
Economics and Statistics in the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 

III RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES — Edward D. Jones, Instructor in Econom¬ 

ics and Statistics in the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 

IV COMMERCIAL INSTITUTIONS — Wilfred H. Schoff, Chief of the Foreign 

Department in the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, Penn¬ 
sylvania 

V BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS — William Franklin Willoughby, 
Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

VI EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS — William Franklin Willoughby, Expert in the 

Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

VII INSPECTION OF FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS — William Franklin 

Willoughby, Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

VIII INSPECTION OF MINES — William Franklin Willoughby, Expert in the 
Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

IX REGULATION OF THE SWEATING SYSTEM — William Franklin Wil¬ 
loughby, Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

X INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION — William Franklin 
Willoughby, Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

XI BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS — William Franklin Willoughby 
—Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

XII COOPERATION AND PROFIT SHARING — N. P. Gilman, Meadville, Penn¬ 
sylvania 

XIII THE HOUSING PROBLEM — Lawrence Veiller , Secretary of the Tenement 

piouse Committee, Charity Organization Society, New York city 

XIV RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS — Josiah Strong, 

President of the League for Social Service, New York city 

XV MUNICIPAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS —Frederick W. 

Speirs, Instructor in History and Economics in the A T ortheast Manual 
Training High School , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

XVI INDUSTRIAL BETTERMENT — William Howe Tolman, Secretary of the 

League for Social Service, New York city 

XVII YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS— H. S. Ninde, Secretary of 
the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations, New 
York city 

XVIII TREND OF SOCIAL ECONOMIC LEGISLATION — Robert H. Whitten, 
Sociology Librarian in the New York State Library, Albany, N. Y. 

XIX THE PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF PUBLIC HYGIENE AND 
STATE MEDICINE IN THE UNITED STATES — Samuel W. Abbott, 
Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Boston, Massachusetts 




Department of Social Economy 
for THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 


monographs 


ON 

AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


EDITOR 

HERBERT B. ADAMS 

Professor of American History in Johns Hopkins University 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

RICHARD WATERMAN jr 


VIII 

inspection of mines 


BY 

WILLIAM FRANKLIN WILLOUGHBY 

Expert in the Department of Labor, Washington , D. C. 


This Monograph is contributed to the United States Social Economy Exhibit 

by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 





Tt<M 

.Wj 


Copyright 1900 
BY 

William Franklin Willoughby 




tiryvLfljv. Q*>vat f <r£. S-A/uT. 

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PRINTED BY THE 

Wright & Potter Printing Company 
Boston Mass. U. S. A. 


Mine Labor as regulated by Law 
in the United States 


By WILLIAM FRANKLIN WILLOUGHBY 


The conditions under which mining operations must be 
conducted are so peculiar and offer such peculiar dangers that 
most nations have found it desirable to enact special laws 
regulating the manner in which this industry must be prose¬ 
cuted. The present article is an attempt to show in a rapid 
sketch how this obligation has been interpreted by the differ¬ 
ent commonwealths of the United States. In other words, it 
is desired to show to what extent the mining of coal in the 
United States is considered an industry requiring special 
regulation, and what is the character of this regulation as it 
exists at the present time. 

Coal is mined in considerable quantities in only a por¬ 
tion of the United States. We therefore find that of the 45 
states and three organized territories 18, or slightly over 
one third, do not possess any laws relating specially to coal 
mining. In most, if not all of these, there is little or no 
mining done. Disregarding these there remain 30 states, 
namely, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illi¬ 
nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, 
New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wash¬ 
ington, West Virginia and Wyoming that have enacted more 
or less detailed laws concerning mining. A study of the 
extent to which coal mining is subjected to special legal 
regulation therefore involves only the consideration of the 
legislation of these 30 states. 

An examination of these various laws shows that a very 
general agreement has been reached by the different legisla¬ 
tures in regard to the character of the regulations that should 
be provided. The laws of all are strikingly similar. The 





4 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


same provisions and even the same phraseology are found 
repeated in the statutes of state after state. The differences 
that exist are mainly in the extent to which regulation is 
attempted and the efficiency of the system that is provided 
for its enforcement. It is quite feasible, therefore, to study 
the legislation of the states as a whole. 

If these mining laws be examined analytically it will be 
seen that their purposes can be grouped in six distinct classes: 

1) the regulation of the employment of women and children ; 

2) the formulation of a set of rules and regulations setting 
forth more or less specifically the manner in which the opera¬ 
tion of mining must be conducted ; 3) the insuring that 
competent men will be employed to fill responsible positions, 
which is largely done through a system of state examination 
and the granting of certificates of competency ; 4) the require¬ 
ment that all fatal or serious accidents be reported and 
investigated ; 5) the protection of the rights of miners through 
regulating the manner of weighing or measuring the quantity 
of coal mined and the frequency and character of wage pay¬ 
ments ; and 6) the provision of an inspection service for the 
purpose of insuring that the laws relating to mining are duly 
enforced. By taking up each of these points in turn we shall 
be able to obtain a clearer idea of the extent to which these 
various objects have been provided for by the different states. 

First, in regard to the extent to which the employment of 
women and children has been specifically prohibited: 

Of the 30 states to which we have accredited mining laws 
ten, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, 
Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming 
absolutely forbid the employment of women either in or about 
mines (clerical work in offices sometimes excepted). As 
regards the employment of children, however, 20 prohibit the 
employment of both sexes under a certain minimum age. 
The five states, Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina, Tennessee 
and West Virginia have the least rigid exclusion, their laws 
providing that children under 12 years of age, and in addition 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW 


5 


those children under 14 in Missouri, those under 15 in New 
Jersey and those under 16 in the other states shall not be 
employed unless they are able to read and write. Ten states, 
Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Montana, Penn¬ 
sylvania, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming have fixed 
the minimum employment age at 14, and Arkansas has in 
addition required boys under 16 to be able to read and write 
as a condition precedent to employment. Ohio prohibits the 
employment of children under 15 years of age in mines. The 
United States statutes on this subject simply provide that 
children under 16 years of age can not be employed in any 
mine in the territories. These prohibitions apply to work 
above as well as under ground, with the exception of Penn¬ 
sylvania where the employment of children under 14 years of 
age in mines is prohibited, but boys between the ages of 12 
and 14 years are allowed to work about mines. 

It is interesting to note that but four states have attempted 
to regulate the hours of labor of adults in this industry. Utah 
and Wyoming have declared eight hours to constitute the 
maximum length of the working day that can be required of 
any miner, unless extra efforts are required to save property 
or life; and Montana in 1897 imposed a similar limitation on 
the hours of labor of hoisting engineers in mines. Ohio 
passed a somewhat similar law limiting the hours of labor of 
railway and mine employees to ten a day. These restrictions, 
it should be understood, do not prevent mine owners from 
operating their mines any number of hours, by using different 
shifts of men. 

The constitutionality of these laws has been repeatedly 
contested on the ground that they interfered with the liberty 
of contract and the property rights of employers as guaranteed 
by the constitution. The Ohio law was declared unconstitu¬ 
tional. On the other hand, the supreme court of the United 
States, in a notable decision in 1898, sustained the Utah law. 
This would seem to establish definitely the power of the states 
to pass laws limiting the hours of labor of mine employees. 


6 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


Much the greater portion of the mining laws is devoted to 
setting forth in greater or less detail the various regulations 
which must be observed in the working of mines. The develop¬ 
ment of these has been in almost all cases one of gradual 
evolution. The earlier laws simply provided that proper 
precautions should be taken to secure the safety of miners. 
From year to year additional legislation was enacted, specify¬ 
ing particular conditions that must be observed. In time 
these provisions were gathered together and reenacted as a 
single law, thus constituting what might be called a mining 
code. 

It is manifestly impracticable to attempt here to describe 
the exact character of the legislation in each state individually. 
Fortunately, even the desirability of doing this does not exist. 
The same provisions are found reproduced with but little 
change in the laws of almost all the states, the only difference 
being in the extent to which the formulation of mining regu¬ 
lations has been carried. The following recapitulation of the 
essential provisions of this legislation gives all of the material 
points covered by any of the mining laws. Some of the 
states, notably Pennsylvania, cover practically all of the points 
here enumerated in their laws, while others merely include 
the most important. 

The mining code of an American state in its most developed 
form therefore provides: i) that every owner, operator or 
superintendent of a mine employing over a certain number of 
persons, usually ten, shall cause to be prepared an accurate 
map or plan of such mine on a scale of 100 or 200 feet to the 
inch showing all the workings of the mine ; that this map 
shall be revised at least once in six months in order to show 
new workings ; that when a mine is abandoned a final accurate 
map must be made of it, and that copies of these maps must 
be furnished to the mine inspector and other copies be kept 
where they can be readily inspected at the mines; 2) that in 
• mines where 20 or sometimes ten persons are employed there 
must be at least two escapement openings to the surface from 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW 


7 


each seam, separated from each other by natural strata of a 
certain thickness, ioo or 150 feet; 3) that mines must be so 
ventilated by artificial means that there will be furnished a 
minimum of 100 cubic feet of air a minute for each person 
employed; 4) that doors used to direct or control ventilation 
be so hung that they will close automatically and that door¬ 
keepers be provided for the more important passages; 5) that 
an adequate supply of timber for props be constantly available ; 
6) that suitable means be provided for raising or lowering 
workingmen in mines, and to secure this that the cage used 
for this purpose have a top or bonnet of metal to protect the 
passengers from articles or rocks ; that no single cable be used ; 
that the cage be equipped with a safety catch ; and that the 
cable drum be provided with flanges and a brake; 7) that all 
passage-ways through which cars pass have shelter holes in 
the sides not less than 15 or 30 feet apart into which working¬ 
men may retreat to avoid passing cars ; 8) that the mines be 
kept well drained ; 9) that there be a metal speaking-tube or 
other means of vocal communication between the bottom and 
top of all shafts; 10) that a certain code of signals, usually as 
specified in the act, be employed to regulate the movement of 
the cages up and down the shafts; 11) that only authorized 
persons be allowed to ride on loaded cars and cages ; 12) that 
no coal be hoisted while men are ascending or descending the 
shafts ; 13) that all machinery be properly guarded; 14) that 
abandoned passages be closed; 15) that shaft openings be 
fenced; 16) that steam boilers be inspected at certain inter¬ 
vals; 17) that only a certain quality of vegetable or animal 
oil be used for lighting; 18) that precautions be taken 

to prevent injury from falling coal or rock; 19) that blasting 
operations be properly regulated ; 20) that copies of mining 
rules be conspicuously posted. For mines generating fire¬ 
damp special precautions must be taken, as 21) that they 
be examined every morning with a safety lamp before miners 
go to work; 22) that all safety lamps be owned by mine 
owners; 23) that bore holes of a certain depth be kept in 


8 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


advance of the workings of all passages when approaching 
workings. 

The above are the usual provisions of a mining code. In a 
few cases conditions are given which are not included in this 
list. Thus Pennsylvania requires all stables in mines to be 
built in the solid strata without the use of wood; Pennsyl¬ 
vania and Montana, that stretchers be provided for removing 
injured workmen; and Kansas, that all blasts be fired by 
special firers. 

Rules, however, can never replace the personal element. 
The best of rules are of but little avail unless competent men 
can be secured to supervise their application. The most 
significant and important feature of the whole system of mine 
regulation, therefore, is that by which a number of states have 
sought through a system of examinations to insure that those 
in charge of the actual operations of mining shall be com¬ 
petent men. The positions thus specially provided for are 
those of mine foreman or boss, fire boss, and occasionally 
that of hoisting engineer. 

The majority of the mining states, including California, 
Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Tennessee and 
West Virginia, simply provide that the underground opera¬ 
tions of mines shall be in charge of a competent superinten¬ 
dent or mining boss, whose special duties are to see that a 
proper amount of ventilation is provided, that the walls and 
roof are properly timbered, etc., and that in the case of all 
mines generating fire-damp there shall be employed a “ fire 
boss,” with the duty of examining all working-places for gas 
every morning before the miners go to work. 

The more important mining states, however, have gone 
much further. They have treated the positions of “ mine 
boss ” and “ fire boss ” as of such responsibility that no one 
is allowed to fill them till it is duly certified by the state that 
he possesses the required competency and experience. These 
positions have thus been put into the category of licensed 
occupations, such as piloting and plumbing. States have thus 


i 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW 


9 


required on the one hand that every mine be under the 
supervision of such officers, and on the other that these 
officers be in possession of certificates of competency granted 
after satisfactory examination. 

The Pennsylvania law, for example, provides that on the 
petition of any mine inspector the court of common pleas in 
any county in the district shall appoint a board of examiners 
to consist of a mine inspector, a miner who has received a 
certificate of competency, and an operator or superintendent, 
whose duty it is to examine all applicants for the position of 
mine or fire boss. To secure a certificate of competency 
it is necessary for an applicant i) to be at least 23 years of 
age ; 2) to have had five years’ experience as a miner in bitum¬ 
inous coal mines of the state after he had attained the age of 
15 years; 3) to be a citizen of the state; 4) to be of good 
moral character; and 5) to pass an examination as to his 
knowledge of mining. Certificates of two grades are granted, 
that of the first grade to those who have had the experience 
which qualified them to serve in mines producing gas; and 
that of the second orade to those who have not had this 

o 

experience and therefore can not be employed in such 
mines. In order to protect those serving as mine or fire 
bosses when the act was passed, it was provided that “ certifi¬ 
cates of service ” should be granted to those who had been 
employed with the same company during the year preceding, 
with the proviso, however, that before they could take ser¬ 
vice with another company they should obtain a certificate of 
competency. 

Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Montana and Wyoming have 
followed the lead of Pennsylvania and have enacted almost 
identical provisions, the first two requiring in addition that all 
hoisting engineers must also be provided with certificates of 
competency. 

As the prevention of accidents constitutes the most impor¬ 
tant purpose of mine regulation, it is evidently very desirable 
that accurate information should be obtained concerning the 


IO 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


frequency and causes of accidents, in order to determine the 
responsibility for such occurrences, and whether any progress 
in their prevention is being made. Every one of the 20 
states possessing factory codes, with possibly one or two 
exceptions, requires that the mine owner or superintendent 
shall report to the inspector of mines every accident resulting 
in death or serious injury to an employee. It is further pro¬ 
vided that in case of fatal accidents the coroner shall be 
notified and an inquiry held to determine the person at fault 
for its occurrence. The mine inspectors are also required to 
embody in their regular reports statements of all accidents 
occurring during the year. The information thus afforded is 
of great value, but unfortunately in no case does it approach 
anything like desirable detail. The term “ serious injury ” 
which occurs in all the acts is altogether too vague and 
uncertain. In order to be of the maximum value the report 
of each accident should show the cause of such accident, the 
extent of the injury caused, whether resulting in death, total 
or partial incapacity for labor, or temporary disability, the 
length of time so disabled, the age of the person injured, and 
whether the accident was due to the fault of the person 
injured, to another, or to an unavoidable cause. Whatever 
the information obtained, however, it is to be regretted that 
greater uniformity does not exist between the practice of 
reporting accidents in the different states. Improvement in 
the collection of statistics of accidents to miners is largely 
dependent on the mine inspectors of the different states 
adopting the same form of report for accidents. 

We now turn to what may be called the keystone to 
the whole system of state regulation of mines — viz: the 
appointment of state officers or mine inspectors with the duty 
of personally supervising or controlling certain features in 
mining and seeing that the conditions required by the state 
are complied with. It has been the universal experience that 
labor legislation is of little utility unless some system of good 
government supervision is at the same time provided. In a 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW I I 

way, therefore, the measure of the efficiency of mine regula¬ 
tion is that of the efficiency of mine inspection. 

Most of the mining states have recognized the necessity 
for government supervision, and 27 states have made some 
provision for the inspection of mines. The majority of these, 
viz : Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, 
Missouri, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, have provided 
for only one inspector. In North Carolina and Tennessee, 
the commissioner of labor is the inspector. In New Jersey 
and New York, where there are no coal mines, the offices of 
inspector of factories and mines are combined. Maine, which 
also has no coal mines, has an inspector of factories, work¬ 
shops and mines, but his duties seem to be of a purely statis¬ 
tical character. The United States statute provides that an 
inspector of mines shall be appointed by the president for 
each territory producing 1000 tons of coal yearly. Colorado, 
Indiana, Montana and West Virginia each has two inspectors; 
Alabama and Iowa each has three inspectors; Washington 
has a state geologist who acts as mine inspector, and has two 
assistant inspectors ; Illinois has seven inspectors; Ohio has 
one chief inspector and seven district inspectors; and Penn¬ 
sylvania has one inspector for each district containing not less 
than 60 nor more than 80 mines. 

The duties of inspectors are generally stated to be to 
inspect all mines with specified frequency, yearly, semi¬ 
annually or quarterly, and to see that all the requirements of 
the law relating to mining are strictly complied with. In 
addition to these general duties, however, it is usual to specify 
that they shall keep an exact record of all inspections, and that 
they shall report annually or biennially, showing particularly 
the condition of the mining industry and the number of 
accidents. These reports therefore serve the double purpose 
of showing the results accomplished by inspection, and giving 
general statistics and other information concerning mines. 

For the enforcement of mining laws, with their technical 
provisions, it is evident not only that a considerable technical 


12 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


knowledge is required of the inspectors, but that no small 
degree of discretion must be left to them in the enforcement 
of the obligations which they impose. It is highly desirable, 
therefore, that competent and specially trained men should be 
secured for these positions. As the most certain way of 
accomplishing this, the practice is now becoming general for 
these officers to be selected only on satisfying certain require¬ 
ments and passing a wholly or partly competitive examination. 

The Pennsylvania system, therefore, provides for a board of 
examiners to be composed of two mining engineers and three 
other persons who have passed examinations as mine inspec¬ 
tors or mine foremen, to examine candidates for the position 
of inspector of mines. The examination must be in writing, 
with an oral examination concerning explosive gases and 
safety lamps. Candidates must be citizens of the state, of 
temperate habits, 30 years of age or over, with at least five 
years’ experience in bituminous coal mining in the state, 
and an experience in mines generating fire-damp. The 
names of successful candidates are certified to the governor, 
who makes the appointments. 

Illinois has a board of examiners composed of two practical 
miners, two coal operators and one mining engineer appointed 
by the bureau of labor statistics. The qualifications required 
of inspectors are about the same as in Pennsylvania. In 
Indiana the inspector is appointed by the state geologist after 
an examination, and an assistant inspector is appointed by the 
latter, also after an examination. Both must have had an 
experience of at least ten years in practical mining. In 
California the examining board is appointed by certain judges, 
and the inspectors must be 30 years of age and have had five 
years’ mining experience. In Washington the board consists 
of three practical coal miners, three coal operators and a min¬ 
ing engineer, and the inspector must have two years’ experi¬ 
ence. Iowa has a board composed of two miners, two 
operators and a mining engineer, and the inspector must be 
25 years of age with five years’experience. The other states 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW 


13 


which do not possess mining boards usually specify that 
inspectors must be of a certain age, possess both a theoretic 
and practical knowledge of mining, and have had an experi¬ 
ence in practical mine work for a certain number of years. In 
all cases it is provided that inspectors must not be financially 
interested in any mine in the state. 

The last class of mining laws are in their nature quite 
distinct from those we have been considering. They have for 
their object the regulation of the relations between mine oper¬ 
ators and their employees. The economic dependence of the 
miners has undoubtedly in some cases been taken advantage 
of in the past, and the miners defrauded or at least unjustly 
treated in a number of ways. The two greatest grievances of 
the miners have been that the employers have not given them 
credit for all the coal mined by them and that they have been 
compelled to trade at stores owned and conducted by the 
mine owners. 

In itself the establishment by the companies of stores to 
supply the wants of their employees possesses nothing detri¬ 
mental to the rights or liberties of the workingmen. On the 
other hand there is no reason why they should not serve a 
useful purpose. Unfortunately there can be little doubt that 
in many instances these stores have been used by companies 
as means of oppression. Miners were compelled to trade at 
the store conducted by their employers, and to insure their 
doing so they were frequently paid in scrip orders on the 
store instead of in money. A system of credit was at the same 
time practised which kept the workingman constantly in debt 
to the company, and as the wages were withheld to meet 
this indebtedness, employees would frequently go for long 
periods without receiving any money that they could dispose 
of as they saw fit. There was no check on the prices that 
could be charged for commodities. Any increase in wages 
could thus be made a fiction. 

For a long time this “ truck system ” as it was called con¬ 
stituted one of the greatest sources of friction that existed 


14 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


between the mine owners and their employees. The miners 
themselves did not possess sufficiently strong organizations to 
offer a successful resistance. Great pressure was therefore 
brought to bear on the legislatures of all the mining states to 
prohibit by law the system of company stores, and most of the 
states passed laws to this effect. This prohibition has taken 
two forms, either directly forbidding mining companies to own 
or control stores, or more often requiring that all wages shall 
be paid in money, or if paid in scrip that this scrip shall be 
redeemable on demand in money. At the same time the 
payment of wages as often as once every two weeks was 
made obligatory. 

The constitutionality of these laws has been attacked in a 
great many instances, and many of them have been declared 
unconstitutional. In Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri and Ten¬ 
nessee they were declared void because they violated the liberty 
of contract guaranteed by the constitution. In Tennessee the 
curious ground was taken that such a law indirectly provided 
for imprisonment for debt, which was prohibited by the consti¬ 
tution. In Indiana, however, the law was upheld and New 
York avoided any constitutional objections by limiting the 
scope of the law to corporations. In spite of the fact that 
laws regulating the payment of wages have been declared void 
in so many states, the results desired have in great part 
been accomplished. This has been due, on the one hand, to 
the arousing of public opinion on the subject, and on the 
other, to the fact that employers are beginning to recognize 
more fully their obligations toward their employees. 

As regards the second complaint, concerning the manner 
of determining the amount of coal mined by each miner, practi¬ 
cally all of the 20 states under consideration have enacted laws 
the purpose of which is to insure that the coal is honestly 
weighed. There is little difference between the legislation 
of the several states. The typical method of regulation is to 
prescribe that at all mines there shall be provided suitable and 
accurate scales for weighing coal; that these scales should be 


MINE LABOR AS REGULATED BY LAW 


15 


inspected periodically by mine inspectors or the miners them¬ 
selves ; that the weighman must take oath to honestly perform 
his duties and keep an accurate record of the amount of coal 
weighed; that these records shall be open to inspection and 
finally, as an additional precaution, that the miners shall have 
the right to employ a “ check-weighman ” who shall be per¬ 
mitted by the company to superintend the weighing of all coal, 
and thus control the work of the company’s employee. In 
case such a check-weighman is employed he must also be 
sworn and must keep an accurate record of the coal weighed. 
Some states, as Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, 
also require that all cars be numbered, and their weight and 
capacity plainly marked on each one. 

A few states, notably Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mis¬ 
souri and Washington have exercised a more direct interven¬ 
tion and made it compulsory on all mine operators to weigh 
coal before it is screened. This law has been resisted by the 
mine operators, and in Illinois at least has been declared 
unconstitutional, because it is special legislation and deprives 
persons of the liberty of making their own contracts. 

We have now passed in review the various ways in which 
the operations of mining have been subjected to special regu¬ 
lation by the states. Experience has amply demonstrated 
that this interference on the part of the government, and the 
formulation of regulations setting forth in detail the various 
precautions that must be taken, have been absolutely neces¬ 
sary for the protection of miners against accidents. The 
present degree of regulation has been the result of a gradual 
growth, and the goal has as yet been by no means reached. 
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia and several other 
important coal mining states are now in possession of quite 
complete mining codes, but the majority of states have far 
from reached this standard. The latter have, however, the 
complete legislation of the former states as models, and not a 
year passes without additions and improvements to the mining 
laws of some of them. 


i6 


AMERICAN SOCIAL ECONOMICS 


To one looking over the whole field it seems that the most 
important step that can be taken is to extend the system 
already practised by a number of states insuring thorough 
examination, and to grant certificates to men competent to 
fill responsible positions. James Bryce, with his accustomed 
perspicuity has said that good men can make any political 
system work tolerably, but that no system however perfect 
will give satisfactory results unless in the hands of honest and 
capable persons. What is true of political machinery is 
equally true of industrial organization. Certainly it is desir¬ 
able to have a good code of mining regulations, but it is more 
important still that capable men be secured to direct their 
application. 




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